The reputation of a drama, if it sours, doesn't just affect the female lead who's being trashed; the popular young idol playing the male lead will also suffer.
Jiang Ling had stirred up a hornet's nest this time.
The major and minor capital investors who had suffered heavy losses banded together and turned their attention to Jiang Ling, and to "The Prince Who Turned into a Frog."
Almost overnight, the public sentiment shifted.
On all major social media platforms, anyone who mentioned "The Prince Who Turned into a Frog" or Jiang Ling was met with a barrage of sharp attacks and insults.
Capitalists dug up the terrible dramas and movies Jiang Ling had starred in three years ago at Sparkle Media, inciting cyber armies to create a frenzy. All sorts of extreme and vicious remarks flooded the platforms.
Anyone unaware would think Jiang Ling had committed some heinous crime.
Such malicious attacks were simply unbearable.
Jiang Ling was never one to take abuse.
You dare to cyberbully your great-grandma? Fine, let's have a fight and see who's tougher.
One arrow shot into the clouds, and a thousand armies came to meet.
Jiang Ling called upon members from several fan groups, instructing them to mobilize all their fans to attack.
This time, without regard for anything else, anyone who attacked her would be met with curses.
In the three years since her resurgence, Jiang Ling had strictly cautioned her fans against causing trouble or easily engaging in cyberbullying.
Therefore, seeing Jiang Ling being attacked, the fans were furious but had refrained from launching a large-scale online assault.
Now that Jiang Ling herself had entered the fray, the fans, who had been holding back their anger, quickly went on the offensive, extending their most 'cordial' ancestral greetings to those who maliciously attacked Jiang Ling.
Seeing Jiang Ling being insulted, Jian Zhou was also enraged.
Upon seeing Jiang Ling's fans mobilize, he also posted on Weibo, calling on his fans to join the fight.
After all, it wasn't just Jiang Ling who was being attacked this time, but also the drama "The Prince Who Turned into a Frog."
As the actor playing the male lead, Jian Zhou was naturally at the forefront.
When his fans saw their idol take action, they assumed he himself had been wronged and was forced to retaliate.
Zhouzhou is so cute and handsome, how can anyone bully Zhouzhou?
This enraged Jian Zhou's fans as well.
You want to fight?
Very well, we, Zhou's fans, will see it through to the end!
Although Jian Zhou had only been popular for less than a month, the roles of Dan Junhao and Tong Hao were too endearing, coupled with his divine looks, he had attracted tens of millions of fans.
While his tens of millions of fans might not be as solid as Jiang Ling's, with many being superficial, their fighting power was still astonishing.
With a single command from Jian Zhou, his fans immediately took action, joining forces with Jiang Ling's fans to launch a widespread counterattack.
For a time, major social platforms like Weibo, Tieba, and Xiaohongshu were as lively as a festival.
The malicious slander from the cyber armies also ignited the anger of the audience.
Were they so upset that Jiang Ling's acting was too good, overshadowing the trash from other dramas' female leads, that they wanted to destroy her?
Had good acting become a crime?
The audience recalled how they had been poisoned by endless bad idol dramas over the years, and how "The Prince Who Turned into a Frog" had finally cleansed their eyes.
Weren't these insatiable capitalists so eager to ruin Jiang Ling just to continue producing trash dramas to disgust us audiences?
The more the audience thought about it, the angrier they became, their fury surging to the heavens.
Since a battle was inevitable, they decided to fight with all their might.
The audience split into two groups, with one group rushing to support Jiang Ling and Jian Zhou's fans in their counterattack, while the other began leaving negative reviews for their perceived idol dramas.